Loot ‘Ideology’ is glue binding Mugabe and Zanu PF

Wilbert Mukori Column

“Mugabe and the senior echelons of Zimbabwe’s military share a nationalist liberation ideology wrought during the fight for independence from white rule during the 1960s and 1970s. Mugabe and ZANU-PF have carefully maintained and updated this ideology to fit changes in the political climate,” wrote Alexander Noyes, a Senior Associate at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

What ideology is Noyes talking about?

Before independence and a few decades after; Mugabe had talked about the black nationalist ideology with the confidence and conviction of one has drunk and bathed in the distant lake. But after 37 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule, the Zanu PF ideology and all it had promised have all turned out to be a mirage.

Robert Mugabe himself would be chuffed to bits to read that there is someone out stupid enough to still believe in the mythical Zanu PF ideology. Mugabe would only be too glad to fund Noyes’ studies and wider circulation of his finding for no other reason than to help spruce the tyrant’s soiled reputation!

An honest study, can comb through all Mugabe has ever said and done (his is the only voice ever heard in Zanu PF, everyone else has been no more than a duckling programmed to follow his lead, no questions asked) in search of this Zanu PF nationalism liberation ideology. All one will find is a commitment to defeat the white colonial regime at all cost. The war of liberation has costed the nation dearly in lost treasure, human suffering and human lives and, worst of all, it allowed the power-hungry but intellectually challenged minions to get into power.

After independence Mugabe pursued his “scientific” socialism insisting it would transform the country into this idyllic Marxist – Maoist utopia with guaranteed mass prosperity, “gutsa ruzhinji”, as Mugabe promised. The test of the pudding is in the eating. After 37 years of Zanu PF gross mismanagement and rampant corruption we have mass poverty instead of the promised mass prosperity.

In 1980 Zimbabwe was one of the richest countries in African with potential to do even better. Today Zimbabweans are the poorest in Africa.

So, what went wrong with Mugabe’s “scientific socialism”?

The two threads that has ran through all Mugabe’s bankrupt “scientific socialism” are the regime’s insatiable appetite and its reckless spending. No one has ever prospered from reckless spending; ask the prodigal son!

Mugabe’s resolve to defeat the white colonial regime at all cost was matched by his post-independence resolve to stay in power at all cost. Zanu PF has ridden roughshod over the people’s freedoms and human rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections and even the right to life. 1980 marked the end of the civil war to end white colonial rule and the beginning of new ruthless fight to impose Zanu PF political domination.

Mugabe has used Zanu PF youths and women’s league members, the first two decades, and thereafter by the rogue war veterans; to harass, beat and rape to intimidate and silence Zanu PF opponents and to coerce the public to vote for the party. The Army, Police and CIO have carried out the heavy stuff of political murders. Over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans have been murdered in cold blood to establish and retain the de facto Zanu PF one-party dictatorship.

It was none other than Mugabe himself who has encourage the culture of political violence, vote rigging and lawlessness. He has corrupted the Police, Judiciary, ZEC and other State Institutions forcing them to promote Zanu PF’s no-regime-change mantra in violation of their statutory duties of upholding the rule of law, etc.

Whatever pretentions Mugabe had of being guided by some political and/or economic ideology have all been washed away; leaving behind a despot, incapable of holding any discernible ideology, whose whole life is governed by his insatiable and primeval greed for power and wealth.

“In 2000, ZANU-PF faced its first real political threat in the rise of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition party. In response, ZANU-PF linked resistance to imperialism in the 19th century to the war of liberation in the 1970s and the expropriation of white-owned land in the early 2000s to reward war veterans. This updated ideology promotes a view of Zimbabwe’s politics as a struggle between revolutionary “patriots” (liberation war veterans) and “sell-outs” (the opposition),” continued Noyes. (See Zimeye opinion for full article)

“This ideology continues to run deep in the senior levels of Zimbabwe’s military. It is the glue that binds Mugabe to his generals and thereby lessens the likelihood of a military coup as long as Mugabe is president.”

To suggest that the people of Zimbabwe are still fooled by Mugabe and Zanu PF lies, propaganda and damned lies that the regime still cares about them is an insult to every thinking Zimbabwean. The people of Zimbabwe would have booted the regime out of office many, many moons ago if the regime was not rigging elections.

The very fact that the regime’s damned lies even have any traction with ill-informed individuals like Noyes is because the MDC have failed to articulate a counter narrative to debunk the propaganda. Worse still, it is the MDC’s failure to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections that has allowed the tyrant’s reign to last this far.

It is the looted wealth that has helped Mugabe keep his greedy but wasteful Zanu PF thugs in party and security services united this far. However, the country’s worsening economic meltdown not only affected the ordinary people, even those in the regime’s ruling elite inner most circle have not been spared. It is the fear of poverty that is fuelling the dog-eat-dog tearing Zanu PF apart as member fight over the dwindling wealth.

It was worsening economic situation that force Mugabe to “baby dump” former VP Joice Mujuru and hundreds of her supporters. It was the regime’s failure to pay the rogue war veterans’ children’s fees, their pension and other allowances that forced the rogues to confront Mugabe and demand his departure from office.

If the person who takes over from Mugabe can guarantee the top brass in the security services their present lifestyles there will never be coup in Zimbabwe. Zanu PF ideology is the glue holding the party together. Yeah right! What does General Chiwenga know or care about ideology!

What Zanu PF and security sector buffoons like Chiwenga have failed to grasp, even now with all the evidence before them, is that the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship is economically and politically unsustainable. The party is imploding and the country must dismantle the dictatorship if it is not the dragged into the abyss with the party.

Join the discussion

I agree it is the loot and not ideology that has held Zanu PF together all these years, as the nation’s wealth started to drop, party members have grown increasingly restless. The white owned farms was the last valuable loot President Mugabe had left to give away. Ever since njambanja thugs took over the last farm, the tyrant has really struggled to keep discipline in the party.

The “baby dumping” of Mujuru and her followers was meant to ease the pressure and make those left feel they would now have a share of the loot. The cake has been shrinking so fast that even if the party was to “load shed” another half of the party those left will be well fed!

Zanu PF is imploding and it is the economic meltdown that is fuelling it!

The war veterans are taking the factional war right up to President Mugabe’s door. “Control your children first. Grace a failed mum; her sons unruly rogues failing only with two boys, can’t mother 14 million,” reads the message on the T-shirt that Matemadanda proudly wore.

It is all out war and both Zanu PF factions know there no holds barred and neither side is taking prisoners! This is a kill or be killed war, prisoners are cumbersome burden one can ill afford.

The challenge for the ordinary Zimbabweans is to get the reform implemented so they can finally boot these corrupt and murderous thugs out of office. As long as Zanu PF remains in power Zimbabwe will never live to its full potential – that is a fact!

The only two things President Mugabe has remained faithful to in all his life is his love for power and wealth. Zimbabwe could have become the South Korea of Africa but has become the North Korea of Africa instead.

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist, we have so many CIOs it is no exaggeration to say Mugabe has the whole nation on a leash.

It is therefore the ideology of the loot and fear that has help President Mugabe stay in power.